best cheap/free scores 1.1

[dmill89]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

A Pair of "Broken" Sony TC-WE305 cassette decks. Like most ~20 year old cassette decks they needed new belts.




These are probably some of the easiest decks to service the belts on.

1. Remove the screws holding the top of the case on (2 on each side, one on the top of the back).





2.Once inside remove the small brass screw holding the motor to the mechanism, the motor will rotate away providing easy access to the belts.







3. Replace the belts.



4. Repeat on the other transport.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Nothing interesting for me yesterday. Got a Gigabyte 8IG1000-G, which apparently was the original board for AGFA's dlab.1 IPU. I also have the MPU variant which is the 8IG1000 Pro.

Will reflash both to Gigabyte's stock BIOS, if either of them allow me to.

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

22" Samsung TV from 2008. Works fine, pretty good colors
Steelseries gaming keyboard, can't remember the model #. Works fine.
EVGA GTX970 SC, works fine.

Edit: Got them all for $0

[goodpsusearch]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

A Pair of "Broken" Sony TC-WE305 cassette decks. Like most ~20 year old cassette decks they needed new belts.




These are probably some of the easiest decks to service the belts on.

Perfect score and nice and easy repair! Love old cassette decks

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I have a bunch of old cassette decks from the 70's & 80's, mostly Sony....and a Denon Rackmount/studio cassette CD combo unit. I just never seem to get around working on them.

As for today's dropoffs, not too bad!!

System on left is a Gateway FX6831, the one on the right is a custom built in a really nice CollerMaster aluminum case.



Lets start with the Gateway....

I had to chuckle a little at this....



Side off and after being taken outside and blown out.



That FSP PSU says its rated for 750W.....which made me wonder a little.... I don't think I've seen a PSU rated at that in a normal size housing.



Now for the low-down. It's a first gen I7 quadcore @ 2.8 with 16gb RAM (as described on the label).



...also as stated, ATI Radeon HD5850 1gb...



Not a bad system at all! HDD is missing, but a missing spinner is just doing me a favor!! I probably have several hundred various spinning HDD's lingering around here! Case is in fabulous condition! It's getting harder these days to rehome towers anymore, but this one is worth getting prepared for it. Nice machine.





Now for the Custom in the CoolerMaster case. Given the beige devices and the Zip250, I don't think this is the first/original motherboard used in this build...who puts a Zip drive in a system made this century..lol...it wasn't even hooked up. Best I can determine, this case was made in the early 2000's.



Motherboard is an Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3. This one too is missing the hard drive.



CPU is an Athlon II Quad 630 @ 2.8GHz with 4gb RAM.....ok, nothing overly exciting here....



Visiontek 500w PSU that had a bit of a high-pitch whine coming from it.... I didn't open it....it may need some caps.



The case is what I was more interested in with this one....I could see stripping the innards out of it and putting something better in it. I haven't researched the upgrade paths of this motehrboard yet....but it's sure living in a nice house!





Not bad!

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

1066FSB is as fast as it goes, supporting 3200-series Xeons. I rehomed it this morning, a guy needed something to make a small NAS with....and this fit the bill. I gave it away, I was just happy to see it put back to use.

Awesome!
Makes me happy when people can still find a use for these systems.

Friday's freebie is an absolute stunning one; I had some free time today (Sunday) to see what it was.... Someone called and asked if I wanted an old Pentium4 system.....naturally, I told them to bring it by.... Half expecting some old junk Dell system (the most common ones I get), I got this!!

Some gamer rig in what looks like a Lian Li & Antec clone case....the case looks to be a Chieftec; solid aluminum construction. Naturally, the front door is missing....bummer....but we're not done yet!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1646603925

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1646603925

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1646603925

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1646603925

The guy said if I didn't want it, he was going to throw it in a dumpsite on his farm and bury it.

Oh f^*$ yea - this was an awesome save!

Don't worry about the missing case door. Seeing what you have done with metal work in other cases, I'm sure you could fabricate something out of aluminum or steel sheet. I'm in the process of making several computer sides from extremely thin steel sheet... and so far, it's shaping up OK, though I'm not done yet.

I can't say for sure if the case is Antec or not... but it sure looks like a good copy-cat of one - particularly the quick-remove trays for the 5.25" drives and the side latch with the lock, along with the "mid-section" PSU placement on the back. All of these are more or less what I've seen on old Antec cases.

However, looking at the pictures, I see "Turbocase" printed on the case fans and also on the PSU. Now the PSU is an Apevia unit, for sure. So I wonder if Apevia actually made the case... or if they got it from the same manufacturers as Antec and simply put their fans and PSU in it. Can't hazard a further guess, but it looks like a nice case either way. Definitely don't trash it, even if you don't make a front door for it!

Now, lets get inside it!! I counted 6 hard drives....no clue as to their sizes. Whoever assembled this would be fired if they worked for me....total rats nest and no attempt to manage cabling....

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1646603925

*Ahem*
The cable "management" is quite proper for computers of that era.

BTW, I see one HDD with a vinyl "leather-like" cover on it - those are classic Seagate HDDs. Don't trash that either. Small capacity (usually 30 GB or under, IIRC), but they tend to be very reliable as well. I think these are the pre-Baraccuda line. I have a 17 GB variant in an old P3 PC. It has outlasted 3 crappy PSUs with terrible ripple.

A power supply with a clear case, I've never seen one....

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1646603925

Classic Apevia.

Teenager me back in the days always drooled over one of those, even though even back then, people said they weren't great PSUs.

I now have two of these: one with a clear case like yours and one with a 3-fan case (the latter is posted here.) Both are nearly identical inside.

Motherboard is a Gigabyte P4 Titan submodel GA-8PENXP. This was actually a very high-end gaming board in it's day; sporting the heftier external VRM with fan and the 6 DDR1 slots; albeit 2 on each bank are shared, so it's still obviously only dual channel....but a neat idea for the time.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1646603925

Dang, I never seen a board like this before. Unique keeper, for sure!

Now lets have a closer look at this "aspire" 500w PSU:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1646603925

Now for why the clear shell PSU is good....much like an oven door window, watching for your bread to rise...I'm sure they made this one so you can see when your cap vents rise!! It's a bit of an unusual looking PSU, I'm going to try and fix it.....

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1646603925

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1646603925

Yup, that's the running joke about these PSUs: the see-through case is there so you can see when the caps need changing... or back when people didn't know about bad caps - to turn off the PC when you see fire inside the PSU. Not that these regularly exploded or anything bad like that. They are somewhat decent half-bridge PSUs that just need some good caps.

If you get stuck on the PSU, I think there are several threads on BCN about it. Mine is here, in which I also linked some other threads:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...ghlight=apevia

BTW, seems like I haven't updated that thread... and I thought I did. But I have reversed the entire 5VSB circuit on a schematic, so if you need it, let me know (in case your 5VSB is dead.) I really need to get back on and update that thread.

Also, a year or so later after getting that PSU, I got another Aspire PSU - this one exactly like yours with the see-through case. I haven't posted that one anywhere here, but that one worked great. I have it a nearly full preemptive recap and load-tested it. The Apevia PSU actually do decently well on 12V-heavy systems. I tried mine with ~15 Amps of load on the 12V rail and almost no load on the 5V rail to simulate a 12V-cross load. The regulation wasn't anything to write home about, but it was well within spec. Didn't do ripple/noise as I didn't have a scope at the time.

So all in all, it's an OK PSU. Certainly no Deer, PowMax, or Raidmax junk. You might need some "skinny" 10 mm 3300 uF 16V caps for yours, though. Other than that, it's a pretty standard recap. You can leave the primary caps in - seems these just don't go bad on these PSUs. Could check them, of course.

...but now we come to the true jewel of this thing.....the GPU! an eVGA GeForce 6800 Ultra AGP 256mb!! Wow, just wow! All polymer caps too!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1646603925

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1646603925

You know, me and another BCN member here (who I shall not name in case they don't want to be named) used to exchange PMs all the time about these and other retro AGP video cards. At some point, we joked that people were crazy to pay more than $50-80 for these... but now? A 6800 Ultra easily goes for $200 sold on eBay - I just watched one sell for that much not too long ago. Even the GeForce 4 an 3 series can reach those prices. Completely crazy! The GPU shortage is starting to spill into retro hardware too - not because of BTC or anything like that, but because of how fewer working ones there are remaining (and for sale) now.

As cool-looking as that GF 6800 Ultra may be, you might want to replace the original cooler with something better aftermarket. nVidia literally put the absolute bare minimum that would keep the card working to pass the warranty period. Some of these only lasted because they are still from before the peak of the bumpgate era and made on a large silicon node. But they do fail, still.

A Pair of "Broken" Sony TC-WE305 cassette decks. Like most ~20 year old cassette decks they needed new belts.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1646629302

Nice save!
As a 80's/90's kid, I always appreciate it when I see old cassette decks.

I have a bunch of old cassette decks from the 70's & 80's, mostly Sony....and a Denon Rackmount/studio cassette CD combo unit. I just never seem to get around working on them.

You should.

Some of the Sony decks - particularly the 3-head beasts, if you have any such - are worth some good cash... and play quite nice too, should you choose to use one.

I got my Marantz SD3000 just a few years before the cassette deck "scene" got crazy. Paid a mere $30 with the shipping on eBay to get it to my door. Sure it was in "as-is" condition and needed a good cleaning and a few fixes. But the belts were new and it ended up working good afterwards. Now the same deck in as-is condition is worth at least $100. Working, they sell for $200-300.

Lets start with the Gateway....

I had to chuckle a little at this....

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1646778378

Hey, don't laugh! Back when that system came out with those specs, this was indeed truly nearly top-of-the-line. Actually, that Radeon HD5850 video card can still play some modern-ish games of today.

That FSP PSU says its rated for 750W.....which made me wonder a little.... I don't think I've seen a PSU rated at that in a normal size housing.

It's an FSP... so probably can actually do its rating.
Cap choices inside are likely nothing to write home about, though.

Now for the Custom in the CoolerMaster case. Given the beige devices and the Zip250, I don't think this is the first/original motherboard used in this build...who puts a Zip drive in a system made this century..lol...it wasn't even hooked up. Best I can determine, this case was made in the early 2000's.

LOL! It's a slot filler.

Visiontek 500w PSU that had a bit of a high-pitch whine coming from it.... I didn't open it....it may need some caps.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1646778378

Ugh.
Looks like the PSUs V-Tek had a few years back with their "Mystery Box" events. From the very little info/reviews I could gather online, they aren't exactly great PSUs. Would love to see a picture or two of the insides of one. The voltage doubler switch already tells me this is going to be a "budget" PSU... so probably not capable of 500 Watts. But again, who knows what's inside.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

You should.

Some of the Sony decks - particularly the 3-head beasts, if you have any such - are worth some good cash... and play quite nice too, should you choose to use one.

I had to go look.....I got curious. I have 2 of those 3-headed Sony decks.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

TC-K81!!!
That's the same deck my dad bought back in the early 80's. These are some of the best from that era, if not the best. They have recording calibration and all sorts of neat features to produce a top-notch recording on a cassette.
My dad still has his and it still worked OK a few years ago. I tried it last year, but finally the belts have given up after all these years. It will still try to play a tape, but it's completely out of tune (slow/dragging.)

The 2nd deck is a little newer but still from the same era more or less.
Both of these are well-regarded decks, though.

What other gold treasures do you have stashed away?

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

What other gold treasures do you have stashed away?

Theres a few interesting things around here....

Fisher model 400 60w tube amp acquired from the original owner who bought it new in 1966. It's in mint condition. I've been offered some serious boodle for this....I just can't bring myself to part with it.







Here's a Sansui receiver/amp as well, in working order. I've cleaned it up since these pics....but you get the idea.





There's a minty mid-70's era technics amp around here too, I just dont have any pics of it.

This one is probably one of my favorites. Marantz model SR4300 acquired from the original owner (my stepdad). Mint condition; they take very good care of their stuff. The beauty of this, it's ~mid 90's era, the best of many worlds came together in this model such as Dolby & THX but still bolsters the old world heavy transformer brute force power outputs of old world raw power. This has an amazing sound, I actually use it....it's just in the middle of a rearranging project right now, so it's sitting aside. I don't think it's too terribly valuable....but I just like it.





Theres more lingering around, but those are some of the more notable ones.....but also keep in mind, I an not an audiophile (audiophool) in any way shape or form. This is just stuff I acquired....I by no means set out to find it, nor do I think the $1000 cable makes it sound any better than the $10 one.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I made my rounds yesterday....I haven't done that in a while.... I hauled in a pickup load....

A 17" flat CRT (not sure if it's a Triniton or not), a complete system in the box next to it with a win98 laptop on top. A bag full of beige keyboards....and behind several big boxes full of random power bricks, mostly HP and Dell 19v laptop adapters.



Two beige NEC 4:3 or 5:4 19" LCD's (great for beige retro systems).



A box full of 80mm fans, which I needed....I have gazillions of 90's & 120's, but I was just about out of 80's!



An 8th gen I5 convertible laptop that suffered a liquid spill....





Keyboard was nasty & stuck....and here's some more of whatever this was on the battery; it looks to have been soda or similar sugary drink.



...but it wasn't a total loss! Got an 8gb DDR4 module and an intel 512gb M.2 PCIe NVMe.



Here was a good one; absolutely mint condition Toshiba convertible P55W 5th gen I7 that they said would just hang at POST screen....and sure enough. It was completely unresponsive, couldn't even enter the BIOS....I couldn't get it to do anything either. They blew it off as a bad moteherboard....and after diddling around with it, I was inclined to agree....

I pulled the HDD and wiped it; spinning 1tb...I removed the battery and was going to strip it out...realizing it had no CMOS battery; CMOS is powered by the big battery...I don't know what possessed me to do this, but I and let it sit a while and completely discharge. I reconnected and powered it back up; Lo&Behold, I could enter the BIOS! yay, progress! I reset everything, save & exit....and poo, right back to the frozen POST splash....well fudge... So I disconnected the battery again and while it was discharging, looked to see if there was a BIOS update for it....and sure enough there was....so I fired it again, I didn't enter the BIOS; and just let it boot off default settings to Hiren's, and ran the update utility.... It had v1.00 on it, the latest was v1.10....it flashed successfully and shazam! Rebooted, enter BIOS, set the way it needed to be; save & exit and life is good; the issue went away! Boots perfectly normal now. What made me wonder is why it took that long for the issue to arise, this machine is circa 2016.....but the updated BIOS cured it....and this shop couldn't figure that out (heck,it almost got by me)...ohh well, good for me! I tossed a SSD in it and installed Mint 20.3 for testing purposes, its performing just swell! Mint 20.3 screams on this! The nice part about this one, it has OFFICIAL driver support across a spectrum of 3 OS's; Win 7, 8/8.1, and 10! Not bad!



That's all for now.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Considering everyone and their mom switched from good Winbond branded BIOS chips to Eon (now cFeon) BIOS chips that are TOTAL GARBAGE (not even joking. These were the most troublesome chips I've ever had to deal with when using the CH341A.).

And don't even get me started on SST chips. Those have utter garbage write speeds, at least on my CH341A.

[lti]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

A 17" flat CRT (not sure if it's a Triniton or not)

That HP/Compaq 7550 isn't a Trinitron. I saw a lot of those at the schools I went to. I remember some of them having a really screwed up picture when they were new (like shaking horizontally), but the working ones looked okay.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Lots of scores today:

- Chaintech 5AGM2 mobo (Super Socket 7, VIA MVP3, unknown caps that surprisingly aren't bad yet.)
- Biostar M7MKA mobo (Slot A, AMD 751, yucky Choyo caps)
- Gigabyte 8IPE1000 rev 1 (Socket 478, 865PE, has a myriad of dead Nichicon HM caps dated 2003.)
- Gigabyte 7VAX (Skt 462, KT400, ripped AGP port)
- Dell Inspiron 1420 w/ C2D T5750
- Seagate ST31000524 HDD
- Galaxy S4 GT-i9505

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

The recycling center is getting a big free score from me in the morning!!





As much as I like tech junk, I just can't keep it all!!

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

My latest "score" has been a bunch of modern-ish "mechanical" keyboards for about $5 a pop. I got 2 of them from the same guy off of Craigslist a few months ago and cleaned them up pretty well as they were quite dirty. But once that was done, they came out to be fairly decent KBs (for modern stuff anyways.) Not sure what I'd do with them yet (keep or try to sell, the latter of which I'm not so good at.) And not sure if I can call them a "best" score or even great. However, considering how much modern mechanical KBs go for, these are still an OK deal I think. They just need cleaning/washing, which I don't mind doing.

I also picked up a paper shredder from my neighborhood last week on trash day. It's nothing fancy and just a typical consumer one. Needed emptying (LOL!) and cleaning a little. Works normally otherwise, as far as I can tell (only tested with a few sheets.) Will probably end up getting donated, as I don't need it. Also a few houses down from that were some window blinds that looked quite nice and clean. Figured I could replace the ones in my garage, as they are vynil and almost 30 years old - quite yellowed and "yucky"-looking. But the ones I picked up are just a tad bit too wide... so they will probably end up getting donated to Habitat For Humanity / Re-Store or similar as well.

A few weeks before that, I also picked up a computer desk chair. Overall pretty good condition. Again, needed some cleaning, though not too much (just a tiny bit of pet hair in some of the nuks and crevices, along with the wheels.) Might end up donating that too, lol, as it doesn't quite lean back as much as my current chair... nor does it feel as deep or "spacy". Otherwise, I've been on the lookout for something similar to mine for a while now. Seems most of the modern stuff comes with thick head pillows/rests that push my neck too far forward, which I don't like at all. I like to lean back / slouch into my chairs, if that makes any sense. And once I put my feet up on the 2 desktop PCs under my desk, it's almost like a 1st class bed.

The recycling center is getting a big free score from me in the morning!!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1647214141

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1647214141

As much as I like tech junk, I just can't keep it all!!

Dang. I wish I lived close enough to take trips to your place. I'd be like a kid on Christmas day going through your garbage piles.

I see it's mostly printers, so not going to shed much a tear for this load. However, I do see some old steel-boxed "devices", one in particular with a line transformer in it - I always scavenge those - especially the bigger stuff from things like UPSes or anything with a center-tapped output (good for audio amp testing/repair.) Also, is that a vintage receiver/amp in the 2nd picture? (The one with the silver front)

Kinda sad some of these things are going to waste. I bet that flatbed scanner on the right in the 1st picture probably still works. I see similar ones offered for free here on CL fairly frequently, along with printers. On that note, let me know if you run into an HP Photosmart Plus B209a inkjunk printer with a good print head that you might be trashing. I have one that has a broken print head and (supposedly) won't/can't do anything without the print head. However, I've found out how to get into the hidden service menu and force the printer on so that at least I can use it as a scanner. Got me through college... though I don't know why I'm keeping in anymore. I guess I've been hoping to find the same or similar model of printer with a good head for a while now, since I do also have good cartridges for it.

That HP/Compaq 7550 isn't a Trinitron. I saw a lot of those at the schools I went to.

It looks a little too "modern" to be a Sony... though it could be.
My guess would be that it's a Samsung or Samtron underneath... which are still decent CRT monitors. On the caps front, however, they might need a few new caps here and there.

I'm still using my SyncMaster 955df that I picked up back in 2009. Probably also getting due for a recap, as it runs quite hot (well, moreso than my other CRTs.) Kind of mad at myself, because the person who gave it to me (lady in some small office trying to clear up space) said she had two of them. I said I didn't have space at the time ( yeah right) so I only picked up one. Granted back then people were throwing them out daily, so they didn't seem "worthwhile". Plus everyone that knew me (family, friends, etc.) was making fun of me for picking them up and/or still not giving up on using CRTs. (Some still do today, but now I know not to listen.) I didn't have the technical knowledge back then to try to explain why I thought the image was "better" (at least for my needs)... but 10+ years later, now literally every tech channel is like, "Oh, CRTs are cool, especially for gaming/video".

but also keep in mind, I an not an audiophile (audiophool) in any way shape or form. This is just stuff I acquired....I by no means set out to find it, nor do I think the $1000 cable makes it sound any better than the $10 one.

Yeah, I think most of us here on BCN are like this as well.
Probably has to do with the fact that once you know a little bit about electronics, all the fancy "terminology" in advertising brochures becomes quite laughable / ridiculous to believe into.

A box full of 80mm fans, which I needed....I have gazillions of 90's & 120's, but I was just about out of 80's!

LOL, wanna trade?
Actually, I don't have that many 80 mm fans either - well new/good ones, anyways. I have plenty of used 80 mm ones that need new BBs / your method of BB revival, as they are quite noisy otherwise. None of them are 3 or 4-pin either, which is what I actually need more of.

Here was a good one; absolutely mint condition Toshiba convertible P55W 5th gen I7 that they said would just hang at POST screen....and sure enough. It was completely unresponsive, couldn't even enter the BIOS....I couldn't get it to do anything either. They blew it off as a bad moteherboard....and after diddling around with it, I was inclined to agree....

I pulled the HDD and wiped it; spinning 1tb...I removed the battery and was going to strip it out...realizing it had no CMOS battery; CMOS is powered by the big battery...I don't know what possessed me to do do this, but I and let it sit a while and completely discharge. I reconnected and powered it back up; Lo&Behold, I could enter the BIOS! yay, progress! I reset everything, save & exit....and poo, right back to the frozen POST splash....well fudge... So I disconnected the battery again and while it was discharging, looked to see if there was a BIOS update for it....and sure enough there was....so I fired it again, I didn't enter the BIOS; and just let it boot off default settings to Hiren's, and ran the update utility.... It had v1.00 on it, the latest was v1.10....it flashed successfully and shazam, the issue went away. Rebooted, enter BIOS, set the way it needed to be; save & exit and life is good! Boots perfectly normal now.

That's a really nice save there!

- Chaintech 5AGM2 mobo (Super Socket 7, VIA MVP3, unknown caps that surprisingly aren't bad yet.)
- Biostar M7MKA mobo (Slot A, AMD 751, yucky Choyo caps)
- Gigabyte 8IPE1000 rev 1 (Socket 478, 865PE, has a myriad of dead Nichicon HM caps dated 2003.)
- Gigabyte 7VAX (Skt 462, KT400, ripped AGP port)

Cool set of retro hardware/mobos there.
I giggled a little when you mentioned the Choyo caps - it gave me a memory trip right back to when I discovered Badcaps.net and I think it was a random thread of someone showing images of blown Choyo caps on a mobo. Ah the good ol' days.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Dang. I wish I lived close enough to take trips to your place. I'd be like a kid on Christmas day going through your garbage piles.

This load really is just a lot of crap. TONS of power cords....probably about half my stash of them. The little bastards breed at night worse than small monitors.... 90% of what people drop off here is junk (lots of cords, keyboards, mice, ink printers, etc), but the other 10% makes the other 90% well worth the while of dealing with. Yea, it's heartbreaking to have recycle some of it....but it's better than the landfill....and even the recyclers won't take it all.... Plastics for example, that ends up in the commercial dumpster. :-/ There's also a bunch of old DVD players that didn't work and a couple VHS players that didn't work. I didn't check the scanners or the ink printers....but you're probably right, odds are they work.

I see it's mostly printers, so not going to shed much a tear for this load.

The only one I really contemplated not scrapping was the big Samsung in the right front corner.....but it just had too many things wrong with it. I got it to print, but the drum was wonky and some motor in it was making a horrendous racket and bogging it down....and it wasn't jamming....and the final nail was being black only. If it were color, I'd have been a little more motivated....but its page count was 600k+....it was all done. I did swipe about half a ream of paper out of it....that's one thing printer dropoffs are good for; they're almost guaranteed to be full of paper!!

However, I do see some old steel-boxed "devices", one in particular with a line transformer in it - I always scavenge those - especially the bigger stuff from things like UPSes or anything with a center-tapped output (good for audio amp testing/repair.) Also, is that a vintage receiver/amp in the 2nd picture? (The one with the silver front)

Those are analog satellite receivers from the 70's and 80's. Yea, I should bilk the transformers, but I have a bunch of them already....and tons of UPS's with bad batteries. You're right, center tap transformers are great for making things with, especially anything that may need a negative DC voltage; as from center to outer on each side is 180* out of phase....but anyway, I digress.

On that note, let me know if you run into an HP Photosmart Plus B209a inkjunk printer with a good print head that you might be trashing.

I'll keep my eyes peeled, I get inkers all the time....I usually toss them directly into the gaylord....no passing go, no collecting anythiing....except me collecting any paper that might be in it. I keep the power bricks as well....but the HP ones are always really strange voltages; like 31v....wtf....

It looks a little too "modern" to be a Sony... though it could be.
My guess would be that it's a Samsung or Samtron underneath... which are still decent CRT monitors. On the caps front, however, they might need a few new caps here and there.

It works....but does not appear to be a Triniton upon closer examination.

Yeah, I think most of us here on BCN are like this as well.
Probably has to do with the fact that once you know a little bit about electronics, all the fancy "terminology" in advertising brochures becomes quite laughable / ridiculous to believe into.

I know someone that had some Fisher speakers from probably the 70's that are just completely trashed. Been in a barn, exposed to moisture & critters. Paper cones gone, wood is all delaminated.... I'd have thrown them in a brush fire if it were me. He put them on FB marketplace, some bozo gave him $300 for them. No joke! They were complete trash, he offered them to me for free. The only things that looks like they survived were the pot metal 'fisher' emblem on what was left of the grille cloth and the speaker connector terminal block on the back. I never understood the 'audiophool' mentality.

LOL, wanna trade?
Actually, I don't have that many 80 mm fans either - well new/good ones, anyways. I have plenty of used 80 mm ones that need new BBs / your method of BB revival, as they are quite noisy otherwise. None of them are 3 or 4-pin either, which is what I actually need more of.

The box full I got are all 3-pin. I'm a nice kid, I share my toys....just let me know if you want a few.

That's a really nice save there!

Gracias.

I didn't rag on the shop too badly for missing this, since I just about didn't catch it either.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

A couple HP's dropped off...from one end of the spectrum to the other.

First is a 4th gen i3-4170 @ 3.7GHz with 8gb RAM. The guy said he went to turn it on one day, and it just never came back on. When I checked it, indeed; it wouldn't POST....no beeps, no nothing. I did the basic first, pulled CPU & RAM and cleaned contacts....and bam! Away it went! HDD is missing....but seeing the screw scars on the 3.5" mount not the 2.5" mount, the guy did me a favor by getting rid of the slow spinner in it.

Anyway...









The second HP is a skt370 celeron. Complete system with KB, MS, and monitor WITH it's side-mounted speakers! The speakers are usually long gone 20+yrs later....



The problem with this one is the lame Asus OEM'd board in it....no AGP (has blank, but no slot)....this complete setup would make a neat retro gamer except the junk board....but I have something in mind... Hold my beer!!

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored an Acer Aspire 5742G-374G50Mnkk. Basically i3 370M, 4GB DDR3 (just one stick of 4GB, lol), 500GB Seagate HDD (which is pretty fast) and a Geforce GT540M 2GB GPU which runs through Optimus technology - dynamic GPU switching between iGP and discrete GPU.

The only upgrades done so far were recasing it thanks to a 5552G I had bought in February, bump the RAM to 6GB for now and install a i5-430M in place of the i3-370M.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Must be the week for i3-4170's....got another today; a Dell Inspiron 3847 this time...in mint condition, I peeled the protective film off it! Not a bad system....just too bad it's getting so difficult to rehome towers anymore.







A compaq Sempron system was also dropped off as well...but I didn't take any pics... Motherboard has bad caps...and it's not really worth recapping. Good case for a sleeper though.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

A compaq Sempron system was also dropped off as well...but I didn't take any pics... Motherboard has bad caps...and it's not really worth recapping. Good case for a sleeper though.

Is it the kind that has the motherboard flipped upside down? IIRC there are some Compaqs that are relatively standard ATX, but the mobo is flipped upside down - not BTX, just literally microATX but upside down. (from what I could gather it's the SR5xx series? I've seen photos of the SR1xxx series and they're absolutely standard microATX)